A Bright Future for the Desert Tortoise

If you’ve never seen a desert tortoise, you’re not alone. This extremely elusive creature spends 95 percent of its life in underground burrows, protecting them from the extreme temperatures of the Mojave Desert, and its many predators. The Desert Tortoise has existed for millions of years, but over its history populations have been declining, and in 1980 it was listed under the Endangered Species List as a Threatened species.The Mojave Desert also has an abundance of sunshine, making it an ideal location for generating solar power, which is in demand now more than ever. In 2013, a new solar project was installed every four minutes.

But how could the growing energy need be met without causing further harm to the Desert Tortoise and other wildlife?

A Bright Future

BrightSource Energy aimed to build the world’s largest solar energy plant in the Mojave Desert and turned to The Conservation Fund when it needed help finding solutions for minimizing the plant’s impact on wildlife habitat. Drawing on our broad experience with mitigation projects, we developed and implemented a strategy with the Bureau of Land Management and interested ranchers to acquire and permanently retire grazing permits that will protect 120,000 acres of critical habitat in southern California for the threatened Desert Tortoise.

Why This Project Matters

Our growing energy demands often mean unavoidable environmental impacts. But development and conservation can complement each other. We find ways to turn these into conservation opportunities through smart, mitigation solutions that benefit people, wildlife and the land.

BrightSource Energy project sitePhoto by Jena Thompson

Our growing energy demands often mean unavoidable environmental impacts. But development and conservation can complement each other.